Ken-and-Julie-in-Alaska

"Fire Fighting Coastie" Article in the Juneau Empire

2011-01-10T10:58:00.000-08:00

File this under the title, 'Yea For Me:'

http://juneauempire.com/stories/010911/nei_768156715.shtml

Getting good things done is rarely ever a solitary accomplishment... and this is the case here. I gotta thank my beautiful and patient Julie first, for her generous support allowing me to pursue what I love. Second, my Brothers and Sisters at CCF/R... you know why we do what we do.

KML

Scared Straight !!

2010-04-27T15:27:00.000-07:00

One of the cool things about being a firefighter is that there are alot of things that you get to see behind-the-scenes, that you wouldn't otherwise. This was certainly the case last night...

Fourth Mondays are the night for the Officers Drill, and we usually go out to tour a location or facility in the community that represents some particular hazard to either the firefighters or the community, or both. Shopping malls, oil terminals, electrical generation stations... they offer a great opportunity to discuss beforehand what we will have to do if we must respond there. After all, those in charge should have a better understanding of the uncommon hazards we face, and so will not be so quick to throw people into harm's way without appreciating all the dangers.

Lemon Creek Correctional Center has such an innocuous name for a prison.

Out of sight, outta mind, for me until last night. Nestled in the trees at the edge of town, between Lemon Creek and the foot of Heintzlemann Ridge, where you can just see it from the Home Depot parking lot... if you pay attention.

I probably shouldn't get too specific about the arrangements and what goes on there, but suffice to say that there are lots of guards, lots of metal bars, razor wire, cameras, heavy sliding doors, locks, rules, and specific procedures for all kinds of activities. Turns out, Alaska has some 5000 inmates housed in the state, and they take great pride in their status of being the safest penal system in the country (in terms of guards being killed... which would be none in like 50 years).

I still felt really uneasy going in thru the front gate... I guess I have watched too much TV. It was not what I expected: it was worse. There are no gangs, no drugs, no tobacco, and little violence. There is no privacy. No weights in the yard. The guards are very proactive watching inmate behavior, and problems are anticipated and folks dealt with before they become an issue. There are no beatings, no firehose showers, no secret torture chambers... but if you violate the minor rules, you quickly lose what little perks are available. First time, no warnings...

Control is established by the unemotional, completely predictable and open process of granting priveleges solely based on behavior. If you don't work at the Prison Industry, you get to stay in the open dorms where you probably won't get any sleep. If you don't have a HS diploma, you are required to work on getting it... and if you don't, you find yourself in 'punitive segregation,' which means a small concrete room with a toilet, a sleeping pad, and your religious materials. If you follow the rules and work hard, an inmate can expect to be left alone in as respectful a manner as is possible, and can fill his or her days doing whatever makes the time pass for them.

There are few problems because everyone knows that if you don't play well with others, there is every expectation that your life will be made worse than it already was.

On a very positive note, there are some truly astonishingly talented artists at work... native carvings, scrimshaw, drawings and quilting. Some of it is available for sale at the admin office in front, at probably a quarter of the price of art sold downtown (and just as high quality).

Anyway, I have rambled. I learned two things:

I never want to fight a fire in the LCCC.

I never want to stay at the LCCC.

I think tours of prisons for adolescents is a great idea (OK, that's actually three things...).

Whatever problems you might have 'on the outside' cannot ever start to compare to what it is to live on the 'inside.' Have yourself a great, law-abiding day.

KL

Winter's Grip Slipping Quickly

2010-04-26T13:37:00.000-07:00

I look forward, like most of us in Juneau, for the Spring.

It is no longer freezing when I get up and walk the dogs at 6:30... which is a very good thing.

I have managed to go out in the afternoon sun in a short sleeved shirt, only to remember when the chill returns as the sun starts to set behind the hills that I forgot to bring along a jacket.

And when the sun does come out, so does the entire city...

This weekend was a sunny surprise, when the weather guys called for rain (which never came). When the skies are blue, Juneau is one of the most beautiful places on the planet: a statement I have made here before, but remain convinced of.

The snow's still up in the hills... as we discovered yesterday during a hike up to the John Muir cabin with Julie & Jessica. Julie was not ready for the climb, Jessica was wearing 'hiking sandals,' and the snow after about two miles up was soft and slushy, but packed hard and slick on the boardwalk of the Auke Nu trail. The guide book calls the trail "difficult," when in fact the only "easy"trail in the book is the (nearly handicap accessible) airport dike, so I figured it was all the same. After an hour and a half going up, your humble author was getting punched for leading the ladies on a death march... so we turned around close to the top. Got close enuf to smell the cabin, but not to see it. Crap. I have been told in no uncertain terms that if I want to see the cabin, I will have to find another hiking partner...

Still and all, it was a gorgeous day to be out for a walk in the springtime.

On the topic of previous blog follow-up: I passed my engineer's "stress test," meaning that other than some paperwork, I am qualified to drive and operate Engine 45 at my station. It was close: I almost failed because when I parked the rig, my parking put me 8-inches short of being able to connect to the hydrant with a single 25-ft roll of 5" firehose. The gap meant that I had to connect another roll, all while the preconnects were flowing water from the rig's 1000 gallon tank at over 300 gallon per minute. Like the grains of sand through the glass, they are gone and the clock is ticking until the hydrant connection is made. The tank ran out as I opened the intake valve at the pump panel, meaning the pump started to cavitate and the water supply was lost for about half a second as the hydrant water rushed to the pump. Had I taken any longer, the pressure to the hoses would have been lost and I would have had to take the exercise over again.

Like life, you can't give up... just take a deep breath and work through the problem.

My weight loss efforts are teaching me patience, as well. The weekdays are great, with lots of hard exercise and calorie control, but the weekends take almost all the gains back. I am realizing how strongly social events emphasize food and how weak I still am with my food-resolve, and it is hard to follow the path of restraint. In 5 weeks, I have lost 12 pounds... in my mind I expected a lot more, but I will perservere.

When I think of the advice I'd give a youngin' these days, there would be three pieces: first, take care of your back, cause once you screw it up there is no getting it back (no pun intended!); second, take care of your hearing, cause once you screw it up there is no getting it back; and third, master your food intake before your metabolism changes and then you get old and fat, cause once you screw up and get heavy, it's the shits to take it off.

Well, I guess I can think of some other good advice, too, but those three are a good start...

Oh, and the state flags are flying along Egan Highway downtown, which means that the tourons and the cruise ships are on their way... another sure sign that Winter is over.

KL

Boring Blog Entry

2010-03-29T09:58:00.000-07:00

No spectacular glacier ice photos, or cute dogs, or wilderness adventures today. My gentle readers will try to curb their disappointment...

Julie spent the past three days in pain with a bladder and/or urinary tract infection, so she camped the better part of the weekend on the couch in pain. She was able to get the on-call doc to get her some antibiotics and pain meds on Saturday, now hopefully she is on the mend. Even so, she did a ton of stuff around the house. I am such a pussy when I am sick, compared to her...

I have been fighting a bronchitis for at least a week. Whatever cold I had two weeks ago morphed into a lung problem, and my co-workers got the full aural concert of coughing and hacking from my cubicle last week. Funny, hardly anyone stopped by to chat...

I actually awoke this morning being able to breathe thru both nostrils and have had nary a cough for a few days now.

Julie has been working hard to lose weight before her June deadline, when the reconstruction surgeon will decide if the donor site will be her gut or her trapezius muscle on her back. If she can lose enuf, they'll take from the tummy area. That way, the surgeon can throw in a tummy-tuck at the same time as she gets the new boobs. She continues to lose, but wishes it was faster. She lost another 3 lbs the last week, and she wears more and more clothes that I've never seen before... She is doing a great job.

My Julie is also doing an inspiring job of getting us to the gym. Three or 4 days a week, working out a good hard hour each time. I am there with her, when not sick or firefighting, but she is the driving force.

Julie also wishes that her husband, who apparently is addicted to food, would support her better. Given the density of the situation, I decided last Monday that it was time for me to start a systematic approach to my own weight loss. Once I started counting the calories and watching the carb to protien ratios of what I was eating, I am starting to see a way forward now. I calculated my base metabolic rate, subtracted out the calories needed to lose 2 lbs of fat per week, and am now limiting myself to 1950 cals a day. There's a pretty useful iPhone app called LoseIt! that we are both using now to track exercise and food.

Nothing like the brutal honesty of a bar graph to let ya know what's going on...

A week into this and I have lost 5 lbs, albeit the "easy" 5. The 'clean' math of calories-in and calories-expended appeals to my engineering brain. And I hafta admit it now, I did eat too much. Crap, I love food... I can still eat the things I love, just less now, and I have to pay for it. I reckon everyone has to grow up sometime and eat like an adult. Now is my time.

Spent Saturday morning at the Fire Training Center again, still learning to pump (operate) the apparatus. The Chief admitted that our 'engineering' class was too big, there's like 10 of us, and it is obvious that there is a bit wider spectrum of learning achievement across the class than anticipated. We have been going Saturdays for more than two months now, and we seem to progress at the pace of the slowest. I get impatient because I am doing the expected calculations in my head, on the fly, and the kids can't seem to keep up. I am having fun, regardless, but the weather is getting ever nicer and very soon it will be time to play outdoors on Saturdays instead, and then this class really needs to be over!!

When I was promoted to Fire Lieutenant last year, I was given three expectations from the Chief: certify as an Emergency Trauma Technician (ETT, or about three-quarters of a basic EMT); certify as a Fire Fighter, Level II; and qualify as an Engineer. The engineering class is the last of these goals for me to finish up. Soon I will be able to pick and choose how I want to get 'smarter, ' and what training commitments I can fit into my busy schedule of work, wife and wild...

Lastly, I enjoyed changing 2 gallons of lube oil on Sunday. No vehicle maintenance is easy anymore... cut my left thumb and two fingers struggling against confined spaces. Well, OK, the fore finger was actually cut trying to remove an oil filter wrench socket from the manufacturer's packaging... as I said, nothing is easy anymore. And then there was the mess on the garage floor... sorry, Babe, I'll sweep up the kitty litter tonight.

Like I said in the title... boring.

KML

Does Where Ya Live Determine How Happy You Are??

2010-03-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking alot lately about life here in Juneau and how 'being' here influences how I feel...

Am I happy because Juneau (as a place to live) has qualities that make me happy?? Certainly.

Would I be as happy living somewhere else?? I would hope so.

Am I just a happy person?? Geez, I hope so.

People speak and write frequently about their negative experiences of Juneau. We hear it from folks here now, folks who used to be from here and are now somewhere else, and folks whose history with the city probably isn't longer than 12 hours...

A blog I follow (http://arcticglass.blogspot.com/), written by Jill Homer, a talented writer and long-distance winter bike enthusiast here in Juneau, has given some insight into this young woman's decision to leave Juneau for Anchorage. Why should I care about her decision to move?? Why did I take her deliberation personally??

I care because a well-thought out decision that runs contrary to mine should provoke me to make an equally thoughtful re-evaluation of my own reasons and motivations. Julie and I moved up here in 2006: we did so for some profound and positive reasons. Part certainly involved a promotion and job transfer to a secure and financially comfortable posting. To Julie's immense credit, she left her job, friends and daughter in Portland and moved here with me sight-unseen. It was a change in our lives that we spent weeks discussing and weighing the choices. We gambled on the unknown and got on a ferry in Bellingham to start a new chapter together.

The negatives we are used to hearing about Juneau are pretty much these: isolation, crappy rainy weather, lack of growth, high cost of living, lack of good jobs for the younger folks, substandard medical care, a downtown whose soul has been sold out to the cruise industry, and a suburban valley whose conservative residents advocate development but never get it. Certainly Juneau lives under the Damocles sword of a threatened Capitol move, which should it ever come to pass, would truly cripple this place. And there are no roads out. This roadless isolation can start to chafe, like a small stone in the shoes of your soul... in my case after about 3 or 4 months from my last trip outside.

On the positive side: we have great jobs, and even better coworkers. Wonderful, caring neighbors. Significant and meaningful volunteer work (me with the Fire Dept, and Julie with her cancer and service organizations). Lots of friends and friends-of-friends. Stunning scenery and an abundant natural environment.

The isolation has some good consequences: greater self-reliance and pride in doing for ourselves; greater sense of ownership of what we have; a chance to live a bit more simply. I have never produced less household garbage and recycled more. Most of the seafood we eat is locally caught by someone whose name I know. I have to cook my own Indian food because there's no restaurant in town to meet my need. I don't have to tolerate billboards on the highway, or endless tracts of strip malls and fastfood. When you want something fancy or uncommon, it takes deliberation and forethought to procure, rather than just an impulse purchase. I want to think that I am more thankful for what I have.

Isolation removes distraction. I can spend my non-work time doing a few things I enjoy and value, rather than trying to do it all (just because the outside has 'everything'). I concentrate on being a safe and effective fire officer. I enjoy my outdoor toys. I walk 2 or 3 miles everyday outside with my dogs, rain or sun. I also can ignore the media hype and materialism we get from outside, because I have figured out that I can survive pretty well without 4th meal at Taco Bell, the wood fired grill at Red Lobster, the BOGO at Payless Shoes and saving at Kohl's. Come to think of it, we must be hopelessly out of step with mainstream America... and that is definitely OK with me.

I know that I turned away from the darkness when I met my Julie. Regardless of where we might have ended up, I know with every fiber of my being, that having this woman in my life makes me happy. The fight with her cancer drove home the need to celebrate everyday and never take life for granted. So, maybe Juneau itself isn't the key to my happiness. Perhaps it is just one more reason to enjoy this life. Juneau doesn't work for everyone: it didn't work for Jill. I want to think she'd agree that it works for me.

KML

Winter Not Quite Done, Yet

2010-03-08T12:14:00.000-08:00

Snow, ice, coughs and colds.

When I lived in New Orleans, the general rule was that if you forgot your umbrella, then you were gauranteed to get caught out in a torrent. Well, it seems the universe laughs again... after a remarkably mild and minimally snowy winter, I decided a weekend ago that it was time to take the studded tires off the Honda so that we could keep the wear down. Of course, the following weekend we get near blizard conditions. The roads are icy and as slick as I have seen them here in Juneau, and it took nearly an hour this morning to get Julie to her work and then me to the Fed Bldg...

Add the hacking cold / crud that has been going around town this winter, that I (again, foolishly) thought I had dodged this season, but have now had for almost a week... Winter is not going down without a struggle.

Forecast says 1 to 3 more inches today... and I feel like crap, but not so bad that I need to stay home. Oh, happy day!!

Finished Treatment One Year Ago

2010-03-02T10:22:00.000-08:00

A tremendous accomplishment for Julie, seen here with Sean Parnell, the Governor of Alaska.

Last Friday was the one year mark from her last round of chemo. Surviving stage 4 Inflammatory Breast Cancer... two surgeries, three rounds of chemotherapy, nearly two months of radiation, and a year living in Seattle under the TLC of dear family and friends, and she is now disease-free.

We can't believe that it's been a year already. The port in her chest finally comes out this Thursday. One less reminder...

Julie will start the reconstruction process in September, just about two years since she lost both of the girls. Taking their place will be the "boobies of a 20-year old!!" She can't wait to not have to wear a bra anymore...

Yet another reason never to waste a minute. Life is too short.

Biking to the Base of the Herbert Glacier

2010-02-22T15:03:00.001-08:00

Julie and I biked to the base of the Herbert Glacier yesterday with a couple of friends... and the dogs, too.

After some debate about the trail conditions, we set off to about 5 miles of packed snow each way... well actually a 12" wide rut in the packed snow most of the way, articulated by icy sheets on the hills. In general we did pretty well, although we now understand that there are studded mountain bike tires out there, made specially for this kind of adventure...

It was a perfect day. We reckoned that people spend thousands of dollars for such a view, and we are blessed to get it for pretty cheap, just right down the road.

And the dogs slept really well last night after their ten-mile run.

Walking on the Glacier

2010-02-02T11:32:00.001-08:00

This was a few weeks ago... a beautiful Sunday hike across the lake ice with Jessica and Julie to the face of the Mendenhall, and up the lateral moraine on the west side to gain the glacier itself.

Next time, the gals get on the ice with me...

KML

The View Out My Window the Other Morning...

2009-12-24T12:21:00.000-08:00

Best wishes for a wonderful holiday and safe, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Two Years Off

2009-08-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

Gentle reader,

Those of you who know our situation realize why this blog has stood still for almost two years...

I want to resurrect this creative outlet this Fall, so please continue to be patient. You know how crazy it has been for Julie and I... lots has happened, great and awful.

We continue to follow our dreams, and we continue to work and hope for the best for all our family and friends.

Cheers!!

KML

Second Daughter's Wedding Day July 7th, 2007

2007-09-25T22:37:00.000-07:00

I know, Beth (my second daughter), you have been very patient waiting for these pictures. This blog thing takes time when you are uploading pictures. And you know how much I hate to sit in front of the computer, I would much rather be doing something active.
I am very proud of you, Beth! I've watch you grow up from 3rd grade when everyone thought you were a boy, I always thought that was so cute. Now you have grown to a beautiful young lady. You've met a wonderful man who is great for you and I know you love very much. I have always been very honored to have you call me your second mom. We are here for you and Chris whenever you need us.
So here's the unprofessional pictures we took, they turned out better than I thought they would. I hope your professional pictures turned out great. Love ya, kiddo !!!

Julie

My Name Is Sasha, and I Like My Bone...

2007-09-18T23:50:00.000-07:00

KML

"Termination Dust"

2007-09-18T22:42:00.000-07:00

That first morning when you can see the tops of the mountains, and there's snow where there was no snow up there yesterday... In this case, a dusting on top of Mount Stroller-White, above about 4000 feet.

Summer is over. Whatever didn't get hiked, probably will have to wait 'til next year. Or, will have to be slogged on snowshoes. Crap.

The days grow shorter, ever quicker, exaggerated by the high latitude. The nights grow colder, the grass wet and chilly while walking the dogs before work.

Time to make the most of what's left of the outdoors, before every outing becomes an expedition. Still and all, it is beautiful. Just less warm.

KML

Sasha

2007-08-30T22:37:00.000-07:00

Blogger has a new feature that allows your humble author to attach short video files (about 5 MB, so be patient), in lieu of photos, and this seems like as good a way to introduce Sasha as any other.

We got Sasha a week ago from the Humane Society... a gorgeous 2-month old female black lab mix. We think the mix is something like 80% black lab, 10% chocolate lab, and 10% pitbull. It's too hard to nail down now while she's a little puppy, but we'll see.

Carlos thinks Sasha is the best toy we ever bought him. Sasha has already figured out that a well-placed bite to the lips or ears will get the big dog off her back. Anyway, they get along famously... and we look forward to her big brother helping in her training.

These videos are admittedly lame, being taken in the garage at 10pm, but whadda ya want for free, huh? Now that I know this video-thingy actually works, I'll start taking some better footage.

So have a nice Labor Day; Happy Birthday, Merritt; be safe y'all; and keep those comments coming-

KML

OK, Here's Some Pictures

2007-08-29T23:18:00.000-07:00

We have a new house. It has a kitchen off the open living room floorplan, and here it is:

And here's the view from the kitchen into the dining area:

The hot tub is through the sliding door... ahhh, the hot tub.

The living room...

I will publish some outside shots of the house and garden soon, but it's late right now and I tired and have to get up early in the morning...

We went hiking this last weekend, and Carlos treed a juvenile black bear, a small 2 or 3 year old out on his own, startled while eating a salmon next to the trail. Good Carlos!

This was earlier on the same hike... Julie's friend Melody on the beach, with Carlos in the background, and our new puppy Sasha peeking around Julie.

We also went yachting... I got qual'ed on the Morale boat, and we took off to the Taku Inlet, tooled around for 60 or 70 miles altogether. Everything's better on a boat...

A few weekends ago, on a perfect SE Alaska day, we hiked up the Perserverance Trail into the Silver Bow Basin, a classic Juneau hike and well worth the effort. The mountains standing straight up all around, and the running water through the valley floor... this is why we came to this place.

Lastly, another hike while we were camping out the road at the Eagle Beach State Park... Carlos is exploring a spawned-out salmon, just minding its own business waiting to die and be returned to nature.

Hope you enjoy!!

KML

Yes, Sir! No, Sir! No Excuse, Sir!

2007-08-02T22:39:00.000-07:00

These were the three acceptable responses to an upperclassman while I was at the Academy. The first two are easy enough, and the third will stay with me the rest of my life... What it means is: Hey, I screwed up, I know it, I take responsibility for it, and I am ready to move on.

In my case, I have been kinda busy, and my blog has suffered as a result. It has been two-and-a-half months since last I wrote. In my defense, a lot has happened for Julie and I; but, no excuses.

In no particular order, the last two months have seen Julie and I buy a new house, teach Carlos to catch a frisbee, attend Beth & Chris' wedding, and assemble a workbench in the garage (complete with pegboard, but this is another story). I spent 10 days working at the edge of the planet in Bristol Bay for the June salmon opener, where my team completed over 650 fishing vessel dockside exams. Julie, Jessica and I joined my parents in Europe, to celebrate their 51st anniversary with a 10-day cruise of the Western Mediterranean. I earned my certification from the State of Alaska as a FireFighter I, and I am an active volunteer at the Auke Bay Station.

All this excitement needs to be shared with my gentle readers, so expect that I will do a better job of posting than I have recently. I have lots of pictures (like over 1200 from Europe), so I will post some of the best.

It has been a cool, wet summer in Juneau, and we are staying busy. When not busting butt trying to get rid of the moss that we call a lawn, we are hiking with Carlos. Or, stockpiling fresh wild salmon for the freezer. Or, enjoying the hot tub. Life is pretty good.

More to follow soon...

KML

Belated Happy Momma's Day...

2007-05-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

We want all the Mommas out there to know that we love you and wish you the best. Hope you all had a great day!!

Now, somebody please show Dad how to tone down the green-eye, so that we don't look like devil-spawn...

Carlos and Baby (and Zoe, but not yet liking the dog)

A Little Credit Goes a Long Way

2007-05-13T23:55:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, if you do good things, like hard work that others appreciate, you get recognized with some token of appreciation. This was the case with me, when a couple of weeks ago, the District Commander awarded me with a commendation for my efforts in Portland. It took a while, but my co-workers in the Rose City wrote me an award, got the Admiral in Seattle to sign it, and sent it up here for presentation.

Sure, if I'd worked for private industry they would have given me a gold watch or something for 14 years of dedicated service, but the feds can't do that because of taxpayer dollars or whatever. Instead, the military is generally good about certificates and medals (so good, that there is a chapter in the personnel manual titled, "non-monetary incentives"). It was cool, getting up in front of everyone at the monthly All-Hands meeting, having the Chief of Staff read the citation, and getting photographed shaking hands with the Big Man.

So now everyone up here knows that I have some previous legitimacy. There's value to that, I suppose...

I had initially thought that this blog entry would be a "I love me" type of affair, like I am so great that I got this big deal award and aren't you thrilled for me.

The nice thing about doing these not-so-often is that I can take some time to think about what I am going to write, rather than just spewing (or, as I have heard it described, having "blog-arrhea"). I started to think about how this award really represented all the little (and big) things that happened along the way, that allowed me to do all that great stuff. No one ever succeeds entirely upon themselves; there are people on the path that helped, and probably too many to know or remember them all.

So I am going to be grateful for a few minutes, in no particular order, to some of the folks whose path crossed mine, and have left me a wealthier and grateful man:

Mike D., our landlord... you let us live in your really cool house out the road, made us welcome, fixed the heat when the oil company delivered the wrong kind of fuel, let us take Carlos for a month, and provided a first-hand example of how the Alaska male works.
Danielle, my assistant... you keep me outta so much trouble, you and John are great friends, with great firewood skills and keen sense of all things Alaskan, and great halibut mango ceviche.
Pat and family... thanks for entrusting your dog, Carlos, to us. We know it wasn't easy to let him go, but you did with great dignity. I am grateful every time I take him for a walk or play ball with him.
Gene and Betty... you guys are how Julie and I want to be when we are in our eighties: independent, strong, humble, gracious, and open. Thanks for selling us your home.
Janet and Nancy... thanks for making the paperwork flow so easily.
Ann, Jim and Arbe... for giving Julie the best job in Juneau, and letting her express herself and keep y'all entertained as well.
Sue and Dan... you left me a great opportunity to come to Alaska and serve, your program kept me going in the right direction, your advice is always appreciated. You and Dan are good friends, whether sitting at our table in conversation or playing some fierce rummy.
My kids... you have my heart, and I will always love you.
Jessica, for reminding me of all the fun I had studying probability and statistics. You're a great kid.
Mom and Dad... I could never say enough to thank you for everything you've given me.
Jan and Mike, you welcomed me to the family with open arms. You guys are always there when we need you.
To all the volunteers who keep the Juneau hiking trails in such awesome shape... you guys should get paid!!
That guy at the gym who hands out towels and always has a smile and a greeting... you obviously know the "secret" of living a good life.
John G., thanks for all the Saturdays and Wednesday nights. This is going to be a lotta fun...
Timmy, though you are at the other end of SE, I really missed you while you were recovering. I am glad you are back on the job, and making my life easier. Stay healthy!!
Dan, Curt, Mike, Niles, Scott, and all my colleagues in D13... I couldn't have gotten where I am now without your aid, support and comradeship. You were the best co-workers ever, and I miss you.
Petty Officer David Bosley... you are remembered by most for sacrificing your life while attempting a nighttime surf rescue off Quillayute River, but I remember that while you were stationed in Newport, you cranked out hundreds of FV dockside exams in the early 90's. You made untold fishermen safer. You did well, my friend.
And, all the men and women of the United States Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxilliary. It is my greatest honor to stand with you and serve our nation.
Yau-Man... you didn't win the million, but you were the winner nonetheless. Thanks for the example you set, the gentle wit, your integrity. And great words to live by: Love many, trust few, do wrong to no one.
Lastly, my best friend and wife. You trusted me to move us to Alaska and start again. Your support has never wavered. I would be lost without you. The next 49.5 years are going to be amazing. I am blessed to have you in my life.

We all have some credit to pass out to others. I truly believe karma surrounds us all, and I am a lucky man for the good that others have given me. I hope that my gentle readers will have their plates full as well.

KML

My Name is Carlos, and I Like the Beach !!

2007-04-30T21:02:00.000-07:00

Here I am at Eagle Beach. I so good looking. What a good boy !!

Mommy and Daddy put this lame dog backpack on me, and then had the nerve to make me carry their picnic dinner. All I got was the lettuce of Dad's sandwich and a bit of Mom's roast beef wrap. Then they loaded the gatorade in one side so I was off-balance and then I couldn't get the dang thing off with my teeth...

I like to go walking with Mommy...

...But I like finding tasty bones better !! Hmmmm, better bury it until next time !!

I so lucky Mommy and Dad like to go outside !!

KML

Ken At Work In Sitka Looking At Boats, On the Radio

2007-04-29T14:02:00.000-07:00

In Sitka while checking the Herring SacRoe fleet earlier this month, I had the opportunity to take along a reporter for the local public radio station, KCAW-fm. The story she filed is on the web, and you can listen to the streaming audio at http://kcaw.org/modules/local_news/index.php?op=sideBlock&ID=82 .

KML

The Newest Member of the Family

2007-04-29T13:18:00.000-07:00

We picked up Carlos this past Friday, and we are sooooo excited!! He is a marvelous, just-less-than-a-year-old black lab puppy. He is smart, has been well-trained, is very even-tempered, and just wants to play and run and get attention. Extremely well behaved!!

Carlos came to us from a family that needed to find him a new home, and he is such a good boy. He is already pretty big, about 2 -1/2 foot at the shoulder, and heavy, but being a puppy it seems he doesn't realize his size. He runs and then flops down to the ground, and you can hear him all over the house.

Zoe and Baby are still not sure about this newcomer. The Baby will come out and do what she usually does during the day, but doesn't let Carlos get closer than about two feet. Of course, Carlos just wants to play with the kitties, but they aren't ready yet. Zoe (the freak) didn't even come out of our bedroom yesterday, electing instead to stay hidden under the bed where she would emit this constant low growl as long as Carlos was in the bedroom half of the house. Carlos sleeps in his kennel at night, and the two cats haven't figured out yet that they can pretty much rule the night wherever they want to go. They'll catch on...

Carlos likes to run outside, and go on long walks, and so far, likes to go places in the car.

Being a lab, he loves to play catch. While playing with a tennis ball outside, the ball rolled down the hill across the driveway and Carlos went right over the edge for it. When he didn't come up, I checked on him and he couldn't find the ball (it was in the neighbors old yard debris pile) but he wouldn't give up. I had to call him off after a few minutes of searching and poking around... what a smart dog, he didn't want to give up.

He came with some toys that he is already destroying... he loves to play tug-of-war, and so he pretty much shreds them. He has a rope (which he knows by word) and we play tug until he crashes on the floor too tired to continue. We are going to have to work on the DROP command, because he thinks it a game so he drops whatever he has in his mouth and then picks it back up quickly before you can get your hand on it. Smart dog...

This is my first big dog, and I was so excited when I heard we were going to raise him. Of course, Julie is the animal-person of the family, and they already get along famously. She is firm but lavish with love and praise. I am learning from her alot...

We are blessed to have this special animal. Even when he nudges me whilst I type, tossing one end of his rope into my lap. A boy and his dog...

KML

Sitka

2007-03-23T00:17:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a four day trip to Sitka. I went down to help the folks at Sector Juneau with their "Operation Herring Thunder," an effort to get on as many of the commercial fishing vessels participating in the Sitka Sound herring sac-roe fishery as we could. Seems that every year in late March, several hundred thousand tons of the oily little guys show up to do their reproductive thing. About 130 vessels also show up, with the goal of sending as much of the fish eggs (in skeins called sac-roe) to the Japanese, to satisfy their appetite for this raw delicacy. I'm not impressed with the taste, but then, I'm not the target consumer...

We were checking the boats for liferaft installations, EPIRBs, their survival suits, and asking a few questions aimed at gathering info about the fishery. It snowed, it rained, it blew sideways, it was cold. As a result, I took mostly boring photos of screwed up liferafts (for training at work). However, I did take a couple that turned out pretty well...

The view is from New Thompson Harbor, Japonica Island to the left, and volcanic Mount Edgecumbe in the background.

This bald eagle perched atop a cargo boom on a tender that we examined. For the second shot, I was able to climb atop the pilothouse without disturbing him, getting about 40 feet away but still wishing the camera had more zoom...

Sitka is a wonderful community; another island with about 8000 (?) people, and surrounded by breath-taking mountains. Sitka was a longstanding Tlingit and Haida native center of commerce, and became the Russian capital of Alaska before the United States purchased the Great Land. The Russians were drawn by the fur seals, and never really learned to play well with the Natives. After they killed nearly all the seals and quite a few Natives in the process, they were happy to be bought out by the Americans. They did leave a rich, lasting Orthodox heritage in all of coastal Alaska, as still evidenced by the churches and architecture. I will get back to Sitka this summer and take some more pictures...

KML

Snow

2007-03-22T23:12:00.000-07:00

All these were shot on the 3rd of March, a cold but clear day, as we were digging out...

Clear days in the winter are rare but beautiful. Here's looking down the driveway...

The snow is not quite halfway up the windows in front...

A frozen Auke Lake, looking toward Mount McGinnis (top in the clouds)...

Ice chokes the Gastineau Channel, with the hills of Douglas Island rising above the passage...

Mike (our landlord and snowplow-guy) working on our parking spot. Shot this thru the front window, so not the best photo ever taken, but note the top of the 5-ft tall rose bush in the yard...

The parking berm from the other side...

Mike and I thought, what the heck, let's dig out the fire hydrant in the front, 'cause ya never know...

As Julie my darling would say, it was a ton of flippin' snow...

By the way, it is now official: as the second day of "Spring" dawned, the winter of 2006-07 has had the most snow since records were kept in Juneau. Juneau's ski area at EagleCrest also has the deepest snowpack of any ski resort on the planet... what an honor. This after the rainiest summer on record.

KML

Winter Roars into Juneau Like a Lion

2007-03-02T17:32:00.000-08:00

We have come to rely upon the National Weather Service website for a pretty good indicator of what's coming. Usually once or twice a day, from right there on the "Favorites" bar, open it up and take a quick read.

Yesterday morning, I checked it after getting out of the shower, and saw something that caught my eye... the entire SE panhandle was red, meaning an urgent weather warning. When I clicked the mouse over the CBJ (City & Borough of Juneau), the text was much like this:

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
JUNEAU AK
1200 PM AST THU MAR 1 2007

...MAJOR WINTER STORM TO AFFECT ALL OF SOUTHEAST ALASKA....

A DEVELOPING LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM IN THE GULF OF ALASKA WILL MOVE TOWARD THE PANHANDLE TODAY. THIS WILL BE FOLLOWED BY AN EVEN STRONGER LOW ON FRIDAY. ARCTIC HIGH PRESSURE OVER THE YUKON WILL CAUSE COLD AIR TO PERSIST OVER MUCH OF SOUTHEAST ALASKA. HEAVY SNOW AND HIGH WINDS WILL CAUSE DANGEROUS WINTER WEATHER OVER THE ENTIRE PANHANDLE THROUGH FRIDAY.

AKZ025-020530-
JUNEAU BOROUGH AND NORTHERN ADMIRALTY ISLAND-
INCLUDING THE CITY OF...JUNEAU
1200 PM AST THU MAR 1 2007...

BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM AST FRIDAY...THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN JUNEAU HAS ISSUED A BLIZZARD WARNING...WHICH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM AST FRIDAY.

A COMBINATION OF HEAVY SNOW AND HIGH WINDS CREATING NEAR ZERO VISIBILITY AT TIMES. TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATION OF 8 TO 14 INCHES OVERNIGHT IS LIKELY. WIND GUSTS TO 65 MPH ARE ALSO LIKELY ESPECIALLY NEAR LYNN CANAL AND DOWNTOWN JUNEAU.

A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS A SERIOUS THREAT TO LIFE AND PROPERTY ISALREADY OCCURRING OR IMMINENT.

TRAVEL IS DISCOURAGED UNLESS IT IS AN ABSOLUTE EMERGENCY.

So looking out the window at 0630, there was no precipitation or wind. It looked pretty calm.

By the afternoon, we were in the midst of an honest-to-God, Great Plainsesque blizzard. "True" blizzards have to have snow, 35 knots wind, and visibility less than a quarter-mile. We had all three. What a mess...

This is the aftermath:

Yeah, I know it took me three weeks to get this done and published... so very sorry.

KML

Comments

2007-02-19T12:42:00.000-08:00

Just to be completely clear with you, we like feedback. There is a comment button at the bottom of each entry for you to tell us if we are particularly funny, articulate, and/or wildly intelligent. Or, that you just like the photos. Whatever...

Like most volunteers, we don't make any money from this endeavor... indeed, we do it to keep you, our family and friends, close to what we are doing and experiencing. We do our part, Julie and I, by writing and showing you a sample of the pictures we capture, and y'all need to reciprocate. So tell us what you think.

If you are mindful about having your comments published for God and everyone to see, then just write that into your comment and I will honor your request. I have to approve them all before they publish, and I don't put them all out there.

Thanks in advance,

Ken and Julie

Flying Red Tail Air

2007-02-18T21:55:00.000-08:00

I hadn't been in the back of a Coast Guard C130 since my first summer cruise at the Academy, back in 1981. They stuffed a third of our class in the back for a couple hours' trip from New London to Charleston. There we boarded the EAGLE, for a week-long cruise (and my first seasick experience).

The intervening quarter-century hasn't changed the Hercules a bit...

This last week I had to go up to Anchorage to give a 90-minute presentation to the District's annual Coast Guard Auxiliary Winter Training Conference, and since some 60 Auxiliarists were already being picked up all over the State of Alaska by this dinosaur, I was expected to save the taxpayer's expense and tag along as well. So, the noisy pterosaur pulls up to the Air National Guard hangar at the airport in Juneau (home of former Gov. Frank Murkowski's jet, the one for sale on eBay) in the cold, driving rain. Pretty much the same description for my seat inside the plane, also.

Another blog I have started reading (www.coconutcommando.blogspot.com) describes riding into Bagdad in the rear of a C130 as being strapped into a sewer pipe... loud, dark, round, windowless, cold. My experience can add "dripping fluids onto your head" to that mix.

I do not like moving within a structure when I can't see some external frame of reference... like a window. Two hours airborne, which except for a short stint out of my seat to go up forward, I had no idea if we were about to land, turn, dive, crash, whatever... My seat was below the center wing box structure, so I could watch a quadrant arm that connected two long rods that went out each wing, presumably tying the ailerons together. When the turbo-prop noise decreased, I reckoned that we were descending, and when the hydraulic pumps were screaming more than they already were, I took it to be either the flaps or the landing gear. No announcements, no freindly banter from the flight crew, just a young flight-suited Petty Officer with large headphones on, watching like a hawk to make sure none of the elderly Auxiliarists stepped out of line on his watch.

As uncomfortable as the seat was, I did get to go up front for a few minutes to see the light...

Fortunately, we left the rain in Juneau and it was clear towards Prince William Sound...

Not as plush as sitting in the front of Alaska Air (muchas gracias, MVP de oro), but it got us there...

KML

Work Travel

2007-02-18T11:23:00.001-08:00

In those years "Before Julie," Ken was a traveling son-of-a-gun. I lived to travel, and I was happy. I put thousands of miles on my government-vehicle Suburban, and it was good. Trips to Brookings, Coos Bay, Newport, Garibaldi near Tillamook, Astoria, Westport, Seattle... it read like an I-5 and/or HWY101 tourist brochure. Mostly one or two overnight-ers, then back home, but the odd longer trip offshore aboard a cutter or to teach or sit in a class. I had the wanderlust, big time, and a job position that encouraged and enabled that running around.
I knew the roads, where the construction was, where the delays would be. I knew the best hotels at the govt. rate (usually on the beach with an awesome view), where to get the best pizza, the best chowder, where to buy fresh salmon or albacore tuna off the boats, the movie theaters with the best screens, when and where to pee before headed south of Bandon... I was the guy on the coast.
It was an indication of my expertise that I was the only person at the Marine Safety Office that was approached to take the newly-arrived Commanding Officer, XO, or Chief, Inspection Dept out to the coast for AreaFam trips. These were good trips, because the new-guy had to see it all in as short a timespan as I could arrange. But one destination was a constant... we had to go to Crater Lake to see the National Park Service's charter concession. Yep, drivin' to Crater Lake during the summer, hiking down to the water to tour the boats and take the trip out to Wizard Island. Then over to Gold Beach to meet n' greet the guys who run the Mailboats on the Rogue River, and so on. This trip usually ended up being that officer's only trip out to southern Oregon, so I figured that it was my duty to be inclusive and complete.
The gentle reader will please forgive me if they know where I am headed in this rambling discourse. It is, I fear, one of the common themes of my life.
Travel takes me to new places, and this change of scenery satisfies some ancient, genetic need. Travel takes me to new places, and in the process, distances me from the ones I love. Life was certainly easier when I traveled without a second thought, but would I really want it that way now?
Life requires balance, balance requires energy and thought and compromise. I have to think that this is a more examined existence than simply following blind wanderlust...
So I guess I should be happy for my difficult choices, although I still drive Julie crazy. Maybe it is my duty to show her the world and ignite in her the same travelin' jones that still drives me...
Of course, I am writing this in the Anchorage airport, having started it in Petersburg and added to it again in Sitka, all within a three week span.
The following is a comment Julie added during the composition of this blog:
And now that you have a wife, your life is boring and all you get is grief when you leave town.
To which I have to tell you, my dearest Julie, best friend and partner, my life is about as far from "boring" as I can go, and I would not choose to do this adventure with you any differently. And your "grief" at my leaving is music to my ears. Think about the fortune cookie epistle pinned to the office blackboard... you know what I mean. Lastly BTW, I am so honored and blessed to have you walk this path with me. Thank you, BooBoo.
KML

Winter Fire on Auke Bay

2007-02-14T00:03:00.000-08:00

After our magnificent walk across the frozen Mendenhall Lake to the terminal end of the glacier, we were tired and hungry, but not ready to quit for the day. We had thrown the bucket of firewood, kindling, newspaper and hand axes in the car with us, so we found a spot above a snow-covered beach at the Auke Rec to have a sandwich and campfire.

While I chopped, Julie deftly arranged the newspaper and kindling, and she started a two-match fire... I am so proud of my BooBoo!!

Despite the welcome flame and associated heat, Julie stayed bundled up tight, only her eyes showing...

We sat by the fire and watched the sun slip down behind the Chilkat Mountains. The stars came out... Orion, Casseopeia, the Dippers. It was beautiful, quiet, peaceful. A wonderful way to end the weekend.

Another reminder of how blessed we are to be on this adventure...

KML

We're Walkin' On a Lake!!

2007-02-13T22:29:00.000-08:00

I lost a friend, Mark Webber, in the 3rd grade back in Newtown, Connecticut, growing up. One winter Monday, he didn't come back to school. The only thing the adults told our class (I suppose to protect us, somehow) was that he had died in an accident. No one told us that he fell thru the pond ice in the hills up above his house, so it took me a while to piece it together. In retrospect, we were deprived of a useful life lesson from his drowning...

It would be another 30 years before I would venture out onto frozen water, and then only high up near Mount Hood, at about 3500 feet. I explored out a short ways on the lake that we were circling on snowshoes during a Scout outting. Remembering that the adult leadership role is to "model perfect outdoor behavior," I didn't go far because I didn't do any of the requisite preps for ice adventure and I didn't want to get myself in trouble. I got off the ice almost as quickly as I strayed onto it.

So, at age 44, I am finally in a position to explore solid ice. Juneau has Mendenhall Lake, and during the winter, it gets cold here (go figure). Last Sunday, Julie and I took a little walk on the lake. Seems that the temperature hadn't been above freezing for about 5 days, and when I chopped a hole in the ice with my ice axe, I stopped chipping at four inches depth of solid ice with no end in sight (remembering from my old Boy Scout Fieldbook that 4 inches of ice was enough to engage in any activity short of driving an SUV on it...).

Besides, the general population of Juneau was already out on the ice on one of those rare winter afternoons where the blue, cloudless skies and glacier-glasses bright sun belie the fact that the air is about 25 degrees. It was glorious. A couple hundred folks were out on all manner of foot contrivance... cross country skis, ski skates, ice skates, hiking boots, mountain bikes, tykes being towed on sleds behind skiing moms. There were locals out for exercise with their dogs, tourists walking in jeans, sneakers and thin jackets, kids out playing, a small group of folks flying a noisy RC airplane out over the wide expanse.

Our plan was to dress warm, take a light lunch, and walk from Skater's Cabin on the SW shore of the lake out to the Mendenhall Glacier. The map showed a distance of about 2-1/2 miles to the foot of the glacier. There was about 2 inches of powdery snow from one of the previous nights on the surface of the ice, so there was no treacherous slipperiness. Even so, Julie threw her Yaktrax on her boots, or rather, she held up her booted feet so that I could secure them and she wouldn't have to bend...

By the way, Julie is soooo wicked cool for doin' stuff like this with me... (shameless pre-Valentines Day suck-up)

It was about as fine a winter hike as I have ever taken, and the prize was the terminal end of the Mendenhall...

KML

Wedding Pics

2007-01-04T21:33:00.000-08:00

Finally, slacker-Ken gets around to updating the blog and posting pictures...

My Julie and I have been married almost 6 weeks, yet it seems like just a few days ago. With Thanksgiving, the cruise, the snowfall, the norovirus, an extended Christmas break, and a wonderful week with kids here in Juneau... time has just flown right by. The adventure has been great, and we are happy to be here in this place.

Julie chose her best friend, Melody, to be her maid-of-honor, with Jessica and May filling out the rest of the purple brides-maid dressed side, while my brother David graciously agreed to be my best-man, and I asked two of my best Coast Guard friends from Portland, Russ Berg and Mike Rudolph, to even out the teams. We had chosen a wonderful location in Woodland, WA at the Lewis River Golf Course... a rustic timber, glass and stone room overlooking the river. Of course, at 7pm in November, it was dark... ok, it was pitch black. Meaning that lots of the pictures turned out, well, crappy. It really was beautifully decorated, with a ton of candles giving a warm, subtle glow to the affair.

We had a short but fun ceremony. For some reason still unknown to me, the entire room laughed quite boldly when I replied to the Reverend's question asking if it were my intention to marry this woman and I said with a resolute and confident reply, YES. Apparently, I could be heard downstairs...

And then the vows. Julie and I co-wrote our vows, and so you'd think that given the time involved and the magnitude of the event that we'd have no problem memorizing them. Not so... seems that both brains went to mush, the nerves failed, and so we relied upon the cheat notes to get us mostly through. I say mostly, because while I did mine flawlessly (if I must say so myself), Julie blurted out an interesting Freudian slip: rather than the previously agreed on "I am a better woman because of you," she uttered "I am a better woman without you." Realizing that it was nervous tension, everyone including aforementioned Reverend, cracked up. It was cute. This mis-step was despite the fact that an hour beforehand, Dave treated Julie to a rousing speech to calm her down and set the tone, which is to say, he told her, "relax, this is only Ken were talking about."

We were blessed to have lots of family and dear friends join us, coming from all over Washington and Oregon and Arizona and California. We hope that you all enjoyed the party as much as we did.

And to Mikey and the band, well, YOU GUYS ROCKED!!

With no further ado, here's pictures:

Go Ahead, Just Ask Me About the Norovirus...

2006-12-04T23:14:00.000-08:00

Also known as viral gastroenteritis, or Norwalk virus, or the stomach flu (although there's nothing flu-like about it)...

Julie got it either on the ship or in Mexico on Thursday, and by the airflight home on Friday afternoon she was tripping over the flight attendents every twenty minutes to get to the head. She looked bad and felt like death, but we made it all the way home. I took care of her as she continued a slow death by the "Big D" on Saturday, trying to keep her clean and hydrated. Me, I felt great. I went out, shovelled snow, went to Costco and Freddies for food, even exercised.

Yeah, until about 4 in the am on Sunday, when I started both the "Big D" and it's sibling, Ralph (see earlier references to seasickness). We though Julie had it bad... but at least she wasn't losing large amounts of fluids from both ends simultaneously. Sunday really sucked.

The internet says that these common norovius infections typically only last 24 to 72 hours, are very uncomfortable, but rarely fatal. So, we should be feeling better very soon, but it also seems we are still contagious for about three days after symptoms are relieved. I guess the boss will have to make the call as to whether or not, and when, I go back to the federal building for work. I don't really want to pass this one around any further...

'Til later,

KML

We Are Home in Juneau, and We Are Married!!

2006-12-02T01:01:00.000-08:00

We back from FishExpo, wedding festivities, and honeymoon... And where the hell did all that snow come from?!!

I tired, so going to bed. Story and pictures to follow soon...

KML

Snow, Snow, Snow

2006-11-16T12:26:00.000-08:00

Damn we got some snow here in Juneau, there's about 3 feet at the house. With snow drifts of about 6 feet.

We have a icicle going from the roof to the back porch and its about a foot wide, 8 feet long. We've had snow on the valley floor for the past two weeks now.

We had a big storm come in on Monday, dumping about a foot of snow. Each day this week we have had 4-6 inches dump during the day/night. This is the kind of snow I seen in Minnesota growing up.

Of course we've seen a ton more snow up in the mountains when we are snow- shoeing but it is so much different when you have to shovel it and drive in it everyday.

They have delayed flights because of the weather. Thank god Ken was able to get out on Tuesday. And lets hope to god that I can get out on Saturday morning. I have a big bachelorette party planned at 7pm, it would kind of suck if we had to have a party on tele-conference.
If we weren't leaving to get married, we would be snow-shoeing all over town. How cool would of that been? But no, lets get married instead.

We are hoping that the snow stays around for along time so we can enjoy it when we get back in two weeks. We still haven't been able to go ice skating or sledding cause we have been so busy getting things done for the wedding.
We are both very excited though, its all coming together so nicely and it will be so beautiful.

See you all in Portland tomorrow. I heard I had to bring my rain jacket, no Parka needed.

Julie

Brrr...........There's Snow in them there hills!

2006-10-31T22:55:00.000-08:00

On Monday, we woke to our first snow on the ground. Sure, it's been up on the mountains and hills for a bit now, but this was the first we could actually touch without a major hike. We got about an inch, maybe a little less, and it was cold.

It didn't last too long, as it turned to a 37-degree rainy day, but it was cool while it lasted.

We went on our first cold winter hike today. We did the West Glacier trail about 5 miles. We must really love each other when we both look like a bunch of dorks.

Of course it was extremely cold, I think about 27 degrees. We each had on about 4 layers of clothes on. About an hour into it we starting taking off the hats and balaclava. The sky was real blue and the air real crisp. It was a perfect day for a hike. On the way to the trailhead we stopped at Skaters Cabin on Mendenhall Lake. It is all frozen and there were about 50 folks ice skating. I was so excited to see the lake frozen. I haven't skated on a lake since I lived back in Minnesota and that was a long long time ago. On Saturday we bought ourselves some cheap ice skates and plan on going skating this next weekend. Ken has only skated twice in his life so I'm sure it will be a sight to see. (I'll take pictures if I'm not laughing to hard)

This is an iceberg frozen in the lake. If we'd had our crampons we would have walked out to it.

We ended up looking over the top of the Mendenhall Glacier, it was kind of weird being above it. You could see the blue in the ice. You can't see it in these pictures but trust me it was there.

We started back down about 3:30pm so we could beat the dark. We didn't make it, about a 1/2 hour later it was already getting dark enough that it was hard to see where we were walking. We ran and speed walked the whole way down, a great work-out but tiring. We are hoping the next time we go up which won't be until December that the snow will be plentiful for some snowshoeing.

Jess, get ready to do some ice-skating and snowshoeing when you are here for Christmas. YEAH !!

Julie

Pictures From the MUNRO

2006-10-31T21:31:00.000-08:00

This is MUNRO in Kodiak where I embarked.

A view from the pilothouse during the low pressure storm in the Gulf of Alaska.

The car carrier OVERSEAS JOYCE bouncing around during the SAR case for the OCEAN CHALLENGER. The smaller fishing vessel had rolled over in the 30 to 40 foot swells within a few miles of her.

Dawn breaks over Unimak Island as we pass thru Unimak Pass, the wide gap in the Aleutians where vessels move between the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. This is desolate country.

Crab boardings are why we are here, and we finally found the right combination of the crabbers we were after and weather that cooperated for small boat operations. On Sunday the 22nd, we boarded four crabbers. Unfortunately, none had the camera guys from the Deadliest Catch...

Looking rather heavy is your humble author, captured while encased in a careful laminate of polypropylene underwear, fleece coverall, ballistic armor vest, gortex drysuit, type III PFD, and survival vest. Though all of this was supposed to breathe, I sweated out about a gallon of fluids during the course of the day.

In-season boardings were new to the "rationalized" fleet, so there was mutual curiosity between the boarding party and the skippers and crew. We sized each other up, but it was all business. No major safety or fishery violations, and I had the time to do some in-depth training with the crew. And no one got hurt. My biggest fear was getting hurt while climbing on and off, but all went went safely.

Search, Day Two...

2006-10-19T18:14:00.000-07:00

The master of the OCEAN CHALLENGER never woke up yesterday thinking it might be the last. No one sane does.

We searched a second day, weaving through and around the rapidly dissapating debris field. The seas are still big, often to 20-feet or so, but more muddled and confused as the strong winds have died to a more moderate 20 to 25 knots. The Cold Bay helo was out with us earlier, as was another C130 from Kodiak. They relocate the fish tote, the wood pieces, the fish floats, the data marker buoy with it's radio homing transmitter dropped from the aircraft, the lifering thrown from the OVERSEAS JOYCE. We are still looking for the master, or anything else that will help to explain why this vessel capsized yesterday, when it never capsized in previous years of worse weather.

About 7-ish tonight we finished our last creeping line search, with negative results. District Seventeen released us, and we made one final track thru the search area as we head toward the Bering Sea.

I am onboard to help with crabber boardings, and this case set us back about two days in our law-enforcement mission, but SAR is what we do, and this was a good reminder of why I love this organization as much as I do. We're seasick, getting slapped silly by a gale in the Gulf of Alaska, no one having fun, and we drop everything to focus on the matter at hand... our fellow mariners, slapped by the same gale, and definitely not having any fun. Less important than our feeling of having done the best job we could, is the tragedy borne by the families of the three men who did not survive.

It would appear, being the stickler for detail and fact, that I may have erred initially in some parts of this. I just read the online article in the Anchorage paper (at http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/8320812p-8216970c.html), based on press releases out of Juneau, and it seems the survivor may have been the only one of the four wearing his suit. Also, it is not the skipper we were looking for, but one of the deckhands. In the thick of the fight, as the historian Clausewitz would call the "fog of war," we don't always get the picture correctly as it unfolds around us. I have no doubt that in the post-mortem that I know will follow this tragedy, the facts will out. What's important to the men and women on the MUNRO tonight is that we did what we could in an awful, cold and uncaring environment.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families.

KML

The Weather Turns Deadly...

2006-10-18T22:34:00.000-07:00

Just another commercial fishing vessel sinking. Just another all-night search for a missing crewman. Just another storm in the Gulf of Alaska.

We received the Mayday relay from District Seventeen about 1000 this morning; a 59-foot longliner with 4 souls onboard was sinking, and the crew readying to take to their survival suits and raft. They were about 40 NM to the west of our position. The HH60 helo that was pre-deployed to Cold Bay for crab season SAR launched, and would beat us there.

We had spent the night slowly steaming southward, into the wind, gradually coming to starboard to follow the weather. Even so, the berthing areas became hellish places... everything that was not already tied down, and alot of stuff that was, came crashing to the deck. TVs, book cases, people. No one I talked to got more than 10 or 15 minutes of sleep at a time... and so in the morning, the ship's routine was not, but was quiet and slow. The deepfat fryer in the wardroom pantry sloshed it's contents out on the deck just after I got my breakfast... two fried eggs overhard and a scoop of cornedbeef hash.

When we got word of the Mayday, we had to come beam to the seas and things got worse. We were taking 25 to 30 footers, and doing some spectacular nosedives. I went to the bridge for a while, and we took spray to the windows, some 50 feet above the foc's'le, every 5 minutes or so. I went out onto the bridge wing in 40 knot gusts to take some pictures... very dramatic.

By the time we arrived at the location passed, the helo had already rescued one survivor, and picked up the bodies of two other crewmen. Nobody had gotten into their suits it appeared after all. No one made it into the raft.

We were joined in the search by a car carrier, the US-flag OVERSEAS JOYCE, and the US-flag container ship R. J. PFIEFFER. The sight of those two leviathans careening around the area in the seas was awesome. We were joined by a C130 flying out of Kodiak, and the four of us churned through the debris field and downwind, looking for whatever we might find.

We pulled two survival suits out of the water, empty of signs of use, as well as pulling the liferaft next to our hull... again, empty and devoid of any sign of use. The raft was thrashed from the seas, only partially inflated, the canopy not deployed. It was a bad sign.

We are continuing the search thru the night, and expect to be released after another first-light aircraft search of the area. The winds have died down as the low passed, and the seas are not as high, but are chaotic and sloppy. We are still rolling heavily. It has been a helluva day, and I am ready for bed.

The ocean swallowed another boat and her occupants, and it doesn't care.

KML

Say Hello to Ralph, My Little Friend...

2006-10-17T23:03:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, the weather guys are just a bit off on timing. They forecasted a steep low pressure in the Gulf of Alaska, and we finally ran into it, or it into us. The effect is the same.

The wind has picked up as the center approached, and with it the waveheight. As we are headed west and it roughly east, the winds have been behind us, but that will change: the wind direction has started to rotate toward the south, and will sooner or later be on our bow. Quartering seas are not too bad a ride, the roll so far pretty gentle. The bad part is the pitching... the nose dives followed by the climbs back up. Every few minutes we encounter a deeper dive, that ends with slamming. Slamming... a term known by sailors everywhere, and entirely self-explanatory and self-descriptive. Slamming is followed by a shimmy that runs the entire length of the boat, akin to a guitar string vibrating along it's length.

The motion sets everything to making noise. The pitch from the big medium speed diesels changes up and down as the props dig deeper into the water and have to work harder. The ceiling panels squeak as the ship structure flexes and they get pinched longwise, doors creak as their frames are misshapen. I wonder how I will sleep tonight, but I suspect that I will wedge myself in my sleeping bag, and somehow fall away. Strange how laying down is almost worse that sitting up... my body mass itself rocks and sways with the ship, even as I lay still, like the water moving in a fishbowl when you carry it. No matter how careful and slow, the water still sloshes. The naval architect in me knows that the force is all about the free surface of the fluid, but it's still strange.

Just finished a wonderful but weird run of e-mail with Julie... because of the slight delay in getting messages, we fell into a routine of two tracks of conversation. Each of us is typing at the same time, then replying to the second-to-last message from each other. It is pretty neurotic, but it works when there is no other alternative. But anyway, in the hour or so between starting this entry and doing the e-mails with Julie, I can feel the boat starting to roll more now as the wind has shifted southerly. We are still slamming, but more roll added in, like a cork-screwing figure-of-eight.

I would be remiss, gentle reader, to fail to mention my good friend, meclizine hydrochloride. As of yet, I have had no seasickness. No desperate need to see the horizon. Only the ever-constant need to hold onto something solid, lest I roll across the deck. I only hope that I can continue to hold Ralph off thru the night and into tomorrow. 'Cause as every sailor knows, as soon as you embrace Ralph, you're gonna have to hug Alice and Huey, too. And that just sucks.

KML

My Busy Life with the US Coast Guard...

2006-10-17T15:52:00.000-07:00

I am doing a crappy job of keeping up with this, my humble blog. I entreat my gentle readers to give me a bit of understanding, given these busy days...

I never finished a discussion of Dutch Harbor, my stay at Charlie's new house, my tour of the crabbers and docks, and my foggy foray into the WWII ruins above the cloudline on Mt. Ballyhoo. I took some good pictures, and I will get to those... soon. Just as I still promise to write about my "Alaska is bigger than your butt, and doesn't care a wit about you" adventure earlier this summer when Chief Garcia and I rented a truck in Nome and attempted to drive to the "Train to Nowhere" one afternoon. All the makings of an epic start, without the clear disaster ('cause we were smart, and a man's got to know his limitations...).

So, as I make these feeble excuses, I am riding onboard the CGC MUNRO in the Gulf of Alaska, somewhere south and west of Kodiak Island, enroute the Unimak Pass and the promise of boardings of Bering Sea Red King Crabbers. It's what we do on ALPATs...

The weather has been pleasant thus far, and the seas very moderate for mid-October. We were promised 10 to 14 footers by the weather guys, but have only seen a 3 to 4 ft chop. It has us uneasy, waiting for the other shoe to drop. It is nice now, but we all know that the weather made famous by the Deadliest Catch can catch us at any time.

The bandwidth on the internet connection really sucks, so there will be no pictures until I get home.

The crew is out of San Diego, although next summer the MUNRO's homeport will change to Kodiak, and then they will be blessed to be Alaskans. They are professionals, serious, and ready to get to the law enforcement tasks in front of them. I am here to do some training with them, to help them get up to speed on enforcing the safety regs, and for my own education. I hope to get out on a few crabbers before I leave the ship later this week. I could tell you more, but then I'd have to kill y'all (wait for the after-action report...).

Julie is sad and lonely with me gone to sea, but we trade e-mails and that makes things a bit better. I think of her often, and it always takes me back to the conflict raging in my heart and soul: do I stay at home safe, or do I obey the lizard-brain longing to go to sea, just as I imagine my ancestors torn between the thrill of the hunt and new adventure, or staying close to the tribe and gathering instead. I suspect I will never resolve this dilemma... but I thank God that I have the opportunities available to me to have this conflict. A desk job with no prospect of new sights, new perspectives, a measured amount of danger... that would kill my spirit.

Or at least that's the crap I tell myself as I hold steady on this desk with my knees as I type, so that I don't move around too much.

Enough for now. Hug a serviceman for their sacrifice, especially a sailor.

KML

My Fiance' Went to Dutch Harbor, and All I Got Was This Ridiculous Hat...

2006-10-12T23:13:00.000-07:00

Is this a ridiculous hat or what? Ken was gone almost a week and I missed him so much. He told me he had gotten me something and of course being a woman I'm thinking jewerlry or something girly. But no I got this hat that is real colorful, oh and a Dutch Harbor sweatshirt. Actually the hat is pretty cool and it will keep us warm this winter when we are snowshoeing all over these beautiful mountains in Juneau. Aren't we so cute together. I'm so lucky!!

Julie

Oh, Lord, Stuck In Anchorage, Again...

2006-10-02T21:19:00.000-07:00

02 October 2006: There is a very good reason that the Aleutian Islands have a reputation as a nasty, difficult place. In three words: the weather sucks.

Alaska Air no longer flies out to Dutch Harbor in their large, fast 737's. Instead, a small partner named PenAir flies smaller, prop commuters out on a three-hour trip, a three-hour trip.

The fog never lifted in Dutch Harbor. We who watched the internet saw a forecast of gusts to 60-knots, but the truth was the fog never lifted. Apparently, those regulatory tud-balls at the FAA require that pilots be able to see the ground before they can touch it. What, and deny the rescue swimmers an opportunity to make the front page?!

I was scheduled to take the third, and final, flight of the day out of Anchorage. But PenAir already had two planes gone, and neither could land in Dutch. The first circled for a while, waiting for a sucker-hole in the ground-level cloud cover. When it reached bingo fuel, they climbed back to cruising and diverted 75 minutes back the way they came, landing at King Salmon. The second flight, launched as the first was turning around, headed straight for King Salmon, to wait and fuel.

From what we gathered from the customer service folks at the counter, nobody was going anywhere close to Dutch. Our 2:00pm departure time came and went, and we hung on, waiting for the top of each hour for the update from their operations manager.

At 5:00pm, they informed us we were not leaving this day. The good news (?) was that they were adding two extra flights to tomorrow's schedule, to handle the folks who tried but failed to get to Dutch Harbor.

But wait, they cancelled three flights... where did that leave me? Good question, call Alaska in a few hours because the extra flights won't show up in the computer for a while. My only consolation was that I didn't have to sit in a loud, prop-driven can for 6 or more hours so that I could have two hours standing on the tarmac at King Salmon.

Retreat to hotel, after waiting for my checked bags to get pulled off the plane we had watched sitting on the ramp outside the window for the past 4 hours...

Later that night, the very nice woman at Alaska promises me, no doubt, I can fly to Dutch Harbor on Thursday afternoon...

The weather in the Aleutians sucks.

I get up at oh-my-god-four o'clock on Tuesday, get to the PenAir counter third in line when they open at 5am, and get on stand-by. The 0600 flight is full, but I get a boarding pass for the 0930. A very short nap, an expensive airport breakfast, and a long flight in a noisy, prop-driven tin can, with a refuelling stop in King Salmon (just in case). We emerge from the overcast, into the rain, but we can see the ground.

I am in Dutch Harbor, and the weather sucks.

KML

Ken is definitely the writer in the family

2006-10-01T18:56:00.000-07:00

I don't imagine that I will ever get tired of seeing these beautiful eagles. This is one that they rescued and now her life will be in captivity. She is blind but I was talking to her and she seemed to listen to me. I think we had a connection. Ya right, Julie.

It has been a long time since I have written on the blog. I think I get lazy and let Ken do it as we all know what a great writer he is. Like most men not so good at expressing or saying how they feel but good at putting it down on paper.

It's already October and so much has happened. I think as you get older time just flies by so fast 'cause it sure seemed to stick around a lot longer when I was younger. In January we were traveling in India, east and west coast. It was such a great adventure and we saw things that I'm sure we will never see again. We just printed out about 25 of those pictures as I have been invited to a scrapbook party with the ladies from the Coast Guard. My friend Carol gave me a traveling scrapbook for Christmas last year and I'm finally going to use it. I think it will be a nice way to put down the great trip with some extra artwork added. Those two weeks in India was one of the best and most exciting times in my life. I will never forget it and would go back in a second. We did learn that I was the more calm traveler in the family. Ken is more detailed oriented and has to check everything over at each transfer. I on the other hand just want to go and get to the next place. We had a great time together, and learned that we are a great team and work well together. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful man as my partner. A blog about our India trip with pictures would be a great job for Ken, I'll let him know.

It has only been 4 months that we moved to Juneau. And again it seems like so much longer. We have already done so much here and finally getting settled in our ways. We really like our house, it is very comfortable and homey. We bought a fire pit about 3 weeks ago and that has been a great addition. We have already made several smores. I could sit in front of a fire for hours and just stare at it. To me, it is so relaxing and calming.

Its only 1 -1/2 months until our wedding day. And guess what we are done with all the planning and organizing of the event. When Ken asked me if we could plan a wedding in 4 months, I said I'm sure but it's going to be lots of work. Honestly, it hasn't been that hard at all. I'm a girl that likes nice things but I don't need several choices to decide what I want. I see something, I like it, I don't need to keep looking. We have had a great support team with Jess, my parents and Ken's parents and friends. Which without all of them it would have never happened. It has all come together... long distance, emails, pictures and phone calls have made it very easy. I will probably start crying when we get to Portland and I actually see everything in person for the first time. Everything is already so beautiful and blending so well, I'm sure its going to be amazing. It is so awesome to have people that really love us and want this marriage to happen just as much as we do.

The first job I received here in Juneau at the Native clinic just didn't work out. I was way over qualified and tremendously bored with the job. I couldn't stand to go to work and every morning I complained. I'm sure Ken was saying to himself, "what the hell did I do". But of course it all worked out. It only took me a week to find another job after I decided to move on. Now I work for a construction company as a Project Administrator. It's more my type of work and I really enjoy the people I work with. I am not the type of person to stay home even if we had the money. My ideal job would be taking care of animals, like an animal refuge. Maybe sometime in the future when money isn't so tight.

Well I think I've bored you all enough. I promise I won't write for at least a couple more months.

Boy, I miss my Jessica!!!!!!!

Julie

The Guardian Goes To Dutch...

2006-10-01T14:35:00.000-07:00

Well, my hair is as short as Kevin Costner's anyway...

I am packing to head west to Dutch Harbor for the week. Unlike the movie's Senior Chief Ben Randall, I am not a rescue swimmer, but at least in my mind, I am a helluva Coast Guard Marine Inspector.

It brings to mind the classic argument within the Coast Guard: is it better to be the guard-rail at the top of the cliff, or the ambulance at the bottom?

Unfortunately, the ambulance-guy gets to jump out of helicopters, roll surfboats over, get all the cool medals, get on the cover of Time Magazine after the massive Katrina response...

And the Prevention troops get to travel out to distant, out-of-mind ports with a clipboard, the Code of Federal Regulations, and a cellphone. Instead of drysuits (although I do have one), we wield the authority of the Captain of the Port. Instead of defying death in the frigid waves, we tempt back injuries climbing to the top of the pilothouse to check liferaft installations.

The Rescue Swimmers' motto is "So others may live." The Surfboat community says, "You have to go out, but you don't have to come back." The Inspector lives by the concept that "You have to go to lunch, but you don't have to come back."

Try as we might, inspecting vessels (especially fishing boats) just isn't sexy. Steven Spielberg will never tell our tales. Rather, we work ignominiously, behind the scenes, dull, cold, dirty, un-sexy. Pissing people off, getting in the way of commerce, welding boats to the dock, but mostly:

Gaining compliance with minimum standards, taking the "search" out of Search-and-Rescue, so that the rotor-heads will fly back with survivors.

It's good to be a guard-rail.

On a final note: No, the cat is not going to Dutch Harbor. Yes, I forgot to pack retro-reflective tape. Ohhh, I might get hurt...

And, I am pretty sure there will be no cell coverage, BooBoo...

Grandma and Mikey and Jessica Went To the Taku Inlet and All I Got Was This Digital Photo...

2006-09-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

Jan, Mike and Jessica blessed us with a wonderful visit a week ago. Jess flew up a few days earlier, and then Jan and Mike for a week... a great chance to get out and do some touron things. Yeah, like shop at the end-o'-the-season sale at the Alaska T-Sirt Company... wandering around downtown with a big red plastic bag marks a touron as sure as a tattoo on the forehead.

Still, we did some cool stuff. I got to almost kill Mom (death by heart attack) on a hike at the top of the Mt. Roberts Tram...

The sun came out, and it was beautiful. We walked a half-mile loop, sorry that I forgot about the up-hill halfway thru, Mom. The Little One and I ran up a side trail to a large wooden cross, a memorial to a priest who, over a hundred years ago, hiked into the mountains to tend to the spiritual needs of the miners. Along the way, we ran into an 84-year old coot with a pair of binoculars... he pointed out a half-dozen mountain goats and some dall sheep on the opposite ridge of Mount Juneau, a couple miles distant. Days like that remind us how blessed we are to live here.

Back to the whale picture: Julie and I couldn't afford to take the entire time away from work (I mean, somebody's got to support this bunch), so they took a day and went on a tour boat south to the Taku Inlet. So that evening, Julie and I got treated to someone else's pictures of them having a great time in a beautiful place without us.

No, there was no digital manipulation of the picture, the blue of the floating berg-lets is real (there's another dozen pictures of the same). I guess the glacial ice has been so compressed that it attenuates all but the the blue end of the spectrum. After the ice breaks off and starts exposure to the air and water, it loses this optical quality.
So, I guess the three of them had to endure the mean, awful boat captain move the boat thru the floating ice and up to the face of the glacier... and then forced to look at seals lounging on the ice... and then have to watch orcas and humpbacks on the way back to town. How cruel. I am so glad that Julie and I got to go to work instead, and miss all that torture !!

They also went out the end of the road to take a look around. It was another sunny and glorious SE Alaska day, with the sea and the sky nearly the same color, and the snow on the Chilkat Mountains in the distance. They took this picture at Echo Cove. I think they are jealous, but they would never admit it.

We ate some great Thai food at our local world-class eatery, bbq'ed some marvelous red salmon, and had Danielle and John over for my home-cooked Indian curry-feast and Cranium. All in all, the weather cooperated, we had a great visit, and they all left with an appreciation of the beauty, nature and isolation that Julie and I signed up for when we moved here. No regrets.

Lord knows that everyone who visits Juneau takes THE picture of the Mendenhall Glacier, and here's Mikey's:

When is somebody local gonna get up there and sweep the dirt off the glacier and make it pretty for the tourons...

KML

Good-bye, Salmon

2006-09-15T19:23:00.000-07:00

I loved this plate.

It was Oregon. The salmon on the plate was drawn by a native Oregonian, and a friend of mine, commercial fisherman (and artist) Herb Goblirsch of Newport.

I was proud to drive that salmon plate around. Made me feel connected to the environment and culture of Oregon.

But now we both have an Alaskan drivers license (with really bad pictures), and Alaska plates on both the cars. I got a Veteran plate with a Coast Guard shield in the middle of it, and Julie got a plain yellow plate. Hers is a placeholder until we can get her personalized plates from Anchorage.

So, although I am glad to be "officially" Alaskan, and now compliant with all applicable state and federal laws and regulations, I will miss my salmon.

The "old" plates will be given a suitable memorial spot in the mud-room, to remind us of those days before we moved up here. Along with a bunch of other memorabilia, all forming a sort of tapestry of past lives.

The present is good, though, too...

KML

Sunset Over Auke Bay

2006-09-15T13:31:00.000-07:00

The weather (finally!) broke late Wednesday, and we were treated to one of the most beautiful sunsets we've seen since we arrived.

KML

Five Years

2006-09-11T22:28:00.000-07:00

I was as shocked, horrified and unsettled as any of us was that morning. We watched, we cried, we sat in stunned silence, listening to the damn TV and knowing that nothing was going to ever be the same as it was. It wasn't a new chapter; it was a different book by another author, and everything was going to be different.

I thought about the victims, cried and prayed for them and the families left behind.

I tried to give blood, but couldn't get past the long donation lines. When it became clear that the expected demand for huge amounts of blood never materialized, the rush was less urgent, but my need to help didn't wane. I began donating platelets, a three-hour process.

I wanted to strike out at the bad guys, whoever they were, but had to content myself with supporting those that could. And working for the Coast Guard opened lots of doors to serve my country.

The images of the Towers falling that morning, the slowly unfolding human tragedy striking so many people, so random, so arbitrary, ultimately made the events of the day all about ordinary people.

Ordinary people, like me.

Separated for about half a year at the time, so uncertain of what the future held for me and my kids. I had no idea how bad things would get, how much hurt and pain were in my future. Uncertain, yet in my heart I knew something... and that terrible morning gave me a reason to know that this was the truth.

My family is the most important thing to me.

On 9-11, as I drove to work late from the news coverage, passing by an armed gate guard onto the base, I knew that I would kill to protect my children. I would die to protect my children. Like a brown bear mama, I would rip apart anyone who threatened my children.

Five years later, we praise the many heroes... Tod Beamer on United 93, the ordinary firefighters and police who found extraordinary courage and sacrificed selflessly to save others, the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and so many other unpleasant places, Coastguardsman Nate Bruckenhall who gave his life defending an oil platform in the Persian Gulf. I cry when I listen to the wives, brothers and sisters, mothers, torn between their admiration and their loss.

I quietly endure my own loss. I am divorced, and I have children who I love with all my heart, and despite my best efforts, things didn't turn out well... a drawn-out personal version of that awful morning five years ago.

I know a few things very well:

Life is way too short, and too randomly cruel, to waste time with hate and evil and meanness.

Nothing makes me happier than giving someone I love a big hug (like my Little One), for no reason other than I love them.

It is good, proper and right to do the correct thing, to take the high road, to never compromise on character.

I love my country, and I will endeavor to protect her citizenry.

I love my Julie.

I love my children. Always, unconditionally.

God bless us all.

KML

OK, So We're A Little Dorky

2006-09-08T16:45:00.000-07:00

I don't have to prove my manhood...

I've summitted Mount Hood.

I've backpacked 60 miles in 5 days thru Central Oregon on the Pacific Crest Trail.

I've hiked from the rim to the Colorado River in the inner gorge of the Grand Canyon and back up, in the 120-degree heat of August.

I've climbed multi-pitch 5.9s at Smith Rock.

I've survived overnight training in SE Alaska, with the contents of a quart-size ziploc bag.

Been there, done that. I am secure in my masculine environmental testosterone...

When the rain temporarily lifted on the Sunday of the Labor Day weekend, Julie and I looked at each other at 5pm and decided we did in fact want to camp before the end of the summer. Because of the rain, on Friday we had pretty much given up on the idea. No plans, no campsite reservations, no camp food waiting to go. We sneaked in a quick (?) seven mile hill hike/climb to the top of the Salmon Creek Dam between showers on Saturday, but we'll not expand on this part of the story (since it involved shameful survival-of-the-fittest behavior, including the abandonment of weaker expedition members on a hillside to be eaten by bears). But Sunday, oh Sunday, a brief respite from precipitation...

We do live out the road, no other houses in direct line of sight, no traffic, so the solution was obvious: camp in the front yard.

Consider, gentle reader, the most critical elements of camping: meat cooked on fire, tall flames for marshmallows and atmosphere, sleeping in a bag on a therma-rest pad in a tent on grass. Technically, the front yard meets these criteria. Granted, there's no view, but there we were within a crawl distance of the back of the car.

Ah, fire good. So what if it's contained in the bottom of an old scavenged garbage can? We dug out the propane lantern when it finally got dark, and the rain actually started to mist again, and played backgammon and polished off a bottle of wine.

We actually discovered that both of our pads now leak, where they were fine before the move. Another project to take on...

All in all, a good weekend. Shoot, we even watched a DVD on the laptop in the tent before nighty-night...

Am I Too Late To Start Building My Own Ark?

2006-09-01T09:50:00.000-07:00

An interesting tidbit heard on the radio this morning on the way to work, speaking of the rain...

The Nat'l Weather Service in Juneau says that August was "cooler and wetter" than normal years... whatever normal means.

It rained a measureable amount at the airport on 29 days in August, with a trace amount on one of the other two days... that's 30 of 31 days. The total rainfall for this August, 11.03 inches, wasn't a record (that was reserved for 12-something in like 1969), but it was twice the average monthly in August (5.3 inches).

The highest temperature reading at the airport last month was 64 degrees. The average daily high temp in August was just less than 57 degrees. Obviously, Juneau isn't on the global warming distribution list this summer. I hope this doesn't forebode a "cooler and wetter" winter...

I am looking out my window at the Gold Creek run-off, and the water volume and velocity is just awesome. At the base of the concrete, there is usually a small standing wave about 6 inches high stretching about half the width of the channel. This morning, there is about two-feet of standing wave all the way from side to side. I wish I had brought my camera in...

KML

I Am a Cat

2006-08-28T22:59:00.000-07:00

My name is Zoey, and I am getting fat, because my Mommy and Daddy feed me too much, and I am incredibly lazy. I am even lazier than Dad, and that's not easy. Oh, and I am spoiled, too. Look at how I have Mommy wrapped around my fingers, errr, claws. But my favorite thing in the whole world is to rip up Daddy's workout shirts because he smells so good... I mean bad, ahhh, strong. Yes, that's it.

My second favorite thing is this carrying-around thing that I've trained Mommy to do. All I have to do is meow really desperate-sounding, and then she picks me up (out of guilt, perhaps, for not feeding me enough?), and hugs me tight. It makes me feel really warm and cared for. Mommy loves me soooo much.

Mommy and Daddy are getting married soon, and she wants me to fly to Portland to be in the wedding. Course anyone knows that flying is for birds, and all I want to do with birds is to make them my close friends (close enough to eat). Mommy and Daddy keep talking about getting something called a dog, and whatever that is, it will either be taught to hold me like I want, or I will shred it's shirt...

And my Jessica is coming up to see me soon. Yeah!!

Zoey

We're Gettin' Married, and You're Not

2006-08-28T22:03:00.000-07:00

Julie and I are both getting married to our best friend this November 21st (Tuesday), in Portland.

Why the Tuesday before Thanksgiving?

It will be our second anniversary of dating, and the date, 11/21, is a combination of my birthdate and hers, without the month. And, as our family and friends will attest, we are truly in love, and I didn't want to wait any longer.

The evening ceremony and reception will be a lively affair, with music from Mikey's band (and big mo-fo shrimp!). Looks like about 60 or 70 folks, so get set for a big (yet elegant) party...

Neither of us ever thought we would find someone to be so happy with, to trust, to respect, and become the very best of friends. And, we will be alive and kicking for our 50th... old and gray and traveled, but more in love than ever.

Ken and Julie

There's No Place Like Nome...

2006-08-27T13:31:00.000-07:00

Nome, Alaska. On the farthest edge of the planet, or so it seems. This is the town from the air (as we departed at 10:00pm), a small city/town/village of 3618 souls, huddled against the Bering Sea, compacted so as to provide mutual warmth in the winter. Oh, and if you've ever wondered, like I sometimes do, where all the US Army Corps of Engineers' money goes, well, Nome has the nicest brand new port facility, jetties and all.

Alaska Airlines flies their trusty cargo/passenger combination 737s out of Anchorage, stopping in both Nome and Kotzebue. These are the short, older, well-worn planes, with the powerful engines and huge thrust reversers that could land this thing on an aircraft carrier. The front half carries cargo (milk, mail, vegetables?) and they squeeze the unfortunates into the back to ride a noisy, cramped 90-minutes.

And who needs that cushy, carpeted ramp to a warm, inviting terminal, when you can have the narrow, slippery stairs that deploy out the back cabin door and dump you onto the tarmac?

Being next to the beach, Nome itself is pretty flat... the hills are inland a few miles. Visible on top of the nearest set of hills and/or mountains is a relic of the cold war, a set of radar antenna, looking a bit like old drive-in movie screens. Large and square, these guys peered over the horizon into Mother Russia's airspace, watching vigilantly for ICBMs or bombers or whatever they had pointed at us. I am sure that the Russians still have a similar array on a similarly desolate hill overlooking the Bering Sea...

But the key to Nome is gold. Actually, the largest nugget of gold ever found, about 155 ounces or just less than 10 pounds, was discovered on September 29th, 1903 near Nome. At one time, just after gold was discovered on the beach (and was, therefore, free game for all... no stakes required), the population of Nome swelled to 40,000. I wish I could have had the corner on the market on tents...

Where gold was the goal, all manner of technology was employed to retrieve it from the earth. Pans, sluices, dredges: they have all left their tell-tale of vast heaps of sand tailings and disrupted tundra. And because transportation is just so expensive when you exist at the end of the world, all the used equipment is just dropped where it lies, to be slowly reclaimed by the environment. Or, sometimes circled by a walkway and designated a city park.

Nome has also gone to the dogs: that last bastion of frontier testosterone known as the Iditarod. The dogsled race starts in Anchorage, runs some 1100 miles across Alaska, much of it still along the original historic dogsled route, to finish on Front Street in the center of Nome.

Then there are the tourists... what were they thinking? Could it be the world's largest gold panning pan?

Or the famous Nugget Inn... which is, I think, the only hotel in town with free wifi. Which reminds me, between Chief Garcia and myself, we had three cellphones, and none of them worked. Yeah, Julie just loved that... Ken can't call out...

The Nugget was full of historical odds and ends. A story tells of how a powerful storm swept thru Nome, flooding everything, including the town cemetery. An old miner returns to his cabin to find a coffin at his door. He opens it to find the body of a famous dancehall queen who passed on a decade before. "Well, Mary," he says to himself, "you're still the best looking woman in town."

We had a great trip to Nome, this metropolis of NW Alaska. We worked some long hours, did some dockside exams, spread the word, and showed the flag. We also got to play a little, and enjoy the gracious hospitality of the folks who call this home.

We also had an interesting expedition of our own... not for gold, but for pictures. Any good adventure has an element of risk and danger. Chief and I had an epic ourselves, a tale to be told soon, where we learned just how big and indifferent Alaska is to the people who come here. But that is another story.

KML

When In Nome, Do As the...

2006-08-22T23:48:00.000-07:00

Nome, Alaska.

In my military-inspired, non-politically correct parliance, Nome is beyond even BFE.

Literally perched on the shore of the Bering Sea, you can easily imagine that the edge of the flat world is just over the horizon. The populace lives off tourism (there's a lot of wierd folks out there that have too much money, I reckon), gold nuggets on the beach, and subsistence food gathering. But I can't really think of a good reason why, given all the other green acres on this beautiful globe, anyone would live here.

I guess some things aren't easily known.

But I have some time to try to find out. I flew in this morning from Anchorage, with Boatswainsmate Chief Steve Garcia from Coast Guard Sector Anchorage. Our three day mission... to get on as many of the twenty-something commercial fishing vessels here as possible, and bring them in to the safety fold. We are flying back out to Anchorage, weather permitting, late Thursday.

Unfortunately, I do not have the plug-in cable-thing for my digital camera with me, so you have to be satisfied with text until I get back to Juneau on Friday. I have been taking some great pictures, and I look forward to getting them out here for y'all.

The sun came out at Noon, and we had blue sky the resy of the day. The reminder that we are standing on the edge of the Arctic Circle came in the form of a stiff afternoon breeze that blew in, at about 20 to 25 knots, frigid out of the north, seemingly out of nowhere. It lasted about three hours, whipping up the shallow Bering into a white cap froth, and then died again almost as quickly as it arrived. Sitting in my room at the Nugget Inn, I feel something akin to sunburn on my face. Nature is raw...

And light, too. The farther North and West one travels, the longer the day. Right now, at 11:15pm on 22August, it is still light enough outside to read. It is dark down in Juneau, but hey, this IS the end of the world...

One thing I can say about the folks here, they're very friendly. Everyone waves, says hello, shakes your hand while looking you in the eye. It is refreshing, and I'm sure, a consequence of the remoteness and hardiness of the land and those who prosper here. I like it.

Not that I would ever live here, but like a bunch of places I've been, it's cool to visit (and then go home). More to follow-

KML

Portland's Japanese Garden

2006-08-16T20:22:00.000-07:00

The stones.

The water.

The plants.

The essence of the Japanese Garden. Designed painstakingly to be a quiet bastion of relaxation, balance and harmonious partnership with nature.

It seems I have been writing about my trips to Portland lately, more than our life in Alaska, but fear not, gentle reader, we'll get back on theme. I have been travelling to spend time with my kids and try to repair our relationships.

Back to the Garden: it is absolutely worth the time to visit, relax the mind, take in the environment, and let everyday concerns take a short vacation.

Our visit was actually Arianne's idea. My daughter is very smart on alot of issues, but especially astute when it comes to the emotions. Her suggestion to spend the afternoon at the garden proved to set us all at greater peace.

We happened to arrive inside the front entrance just as a wonderful Japanese Garden volunteer was about to start a guided tour of the 5-acre sanctuary. This delightful lady (whose name I wish I could recall) took us through the five primary gardens, explaining the history, symbolism, and interpretation of what we were seeing. We were especially taken by the amount of time and energy put into the seemingly smallest details... the placing of a single stone, the care of the koi, the gathering of small stones off the beach (all the same size, shape and color) to be used in the pools. I have always thought that there was much truth to the maxim that says "the devil is in the details." The Japanese also believe this, as we soon figured out.

Since we were there on the weekend, they had a sale of Japanese art in the main building. There were a number of local artists on hand, working their magic while we watched. One woman was a painter, who showed us how to blend colors on a brush to create very beautiful designs: many colors all within one stroke, forming the wings of a butterfly. Then she made a leaf for the butterfly to land on. It was delicate and simple, yet very beautiful and full of "chi," or life energy. Next, she drew some bamboo in shades of black on white rice paper. She showed us "flying white," which showed as patches of white in otherwise darkened areas, which made the stalk look more real and 3-dimensional.

We also saw two potters at work, which my co-writer Lars would love to describe, but he can't recall all the details. Suffice to say, they were assembling a large vase on a round pottery wheel, working together different pieces to create impossible curves. It was cool... and required patience neither of us have.

Lastly, there was the view. How many people have captured this classic image of downtown Portland from this spot? The only negative aspect was the overcast that prevented us from really being able to see Mount Hood in the background. We could barely see the gleam off the snowy summit against the thin high clouds, so we knew it was there.

We strongly suggest that you spend some time here yourself, and see the same wonder that we did.

Lars and KML

Airplanes Are Cool, Airports Suck

2006-08-02T18:21:00.000-07:00

Planes take you wonderful places. They connect people. A window seat with clear weather is akin to being granted god-like vision. You get on in one place, and find yourself at the other end needing a down jacket, or shorts. You can get a ginger ale and a smile and some eye contact, if you care to stay awake. I can go to Portland, buy a pub table (still boxed), and take it home to Juneau as checked baggage. Or frozen naan. Planes are safe, they keep us off the roads. There hasn't yet been any air-rage, and planes never get close enough that the pilots feel the need to flip each other off. A friendly professional controller assumes the role of mediator and facilitator, keeping everyone out there honest. They are clean, and the air onboard has improved orders of magnitude since the ban on smoking. You can meet all manner of interesting folks, and they are almost always cool in their individual way. After all, people who travel by air to cool places are pretty much cool by definition.

Airports, on the other hand, are like vampires. They suck life out of you. There's nowhere comfy to nap, restrooms are hit-and-miss at best, and beyond sepsis at thier third-world worst. Food is way over-priced, almost as much as buying anything at a marine store labeled "Coast Guard Approved." Come on, $8 for a flipping Whopper VALUE Meal? Here, let me cut off my ear for you... oh wait, you won't let me have my knife!!! Layovers are noisy. They design the chairs as non-ergonomically as possible so as to encourage you to walk around and buy things. Try to find a free wifi connection, there's an optimistic thought. Thank God for Starbucks. And what's with AT&T... do folks really buy 24-hours of internet for $9 when all they really want is to check e-mail for 2 minutes? I hope AT&T dies a horrible non-profitable death.

A window seat at an airport almost invariable ends up a greasy brown smog-set over a featureless tarmac and dead-grass horizon. The planes are alright to look at, though... some of the art painted on them. Salmon, Confetti, killer whales, rainbows... oranges, reds and yellows all airbrushed together in a tribute to modern surrealism. Airports are often huge, open, inspiring spaces, but fill that space with grumpy and tired people looking for cheap eats and a place to check e-mail cause they can't sit anywhere, and well, it just takes away all the architecturally-inspired spirit. No one has fun in an airport.

Well, I gotta go. It's a quarter-mile walk with all my crap to the gate, and on the way I need to decide who is going to get the better part of the $20 I just got out of the ATM for my dinner...

KML

Back in Portland

2006-08-01T08:31:00.000-07:00

Back in Portland, sitting in a downtown Coffee People, nursing an iced mocha and partaking of the free wifi. Life is good. The weather is warm, I've got my sunscreen (this time) in case the overcast burns off, and some solo time. Came down from Juneau on Sunday for what I thought would be a quick day-and-a-half trip, but turned into an additional two-days to spend some time with my kids. A very pleasant surprise...

Julie is mildly pissed 'cause I left her after a couple of wonderful days in Juneau, and came down to Oregon just in time to miss a very rainy change in the weather. She says it rained harder yesterday than it has all summer. Sorry, dear...

The kids are getting so big. They've always been on the tall side, but I don't know whose genetics they got, or maybe they just got nutri-ated too well... But they got the intelligence genes, very smart kids: Lars was drawing RNA strands with crayons on his placemat at lunch, go figure. I'll never be able to save enough for his med school myself, so I will be passing around a cup soon, your assistance is gratefully appreciated...

We had a big lunch at the one mexican chain in Oregon that I will eat at (Mazatlan's, but that's a whole other story about getting the worst GI poisoning from the carne asada at the Muchas Gracias in Florence), then poked around in a hobby shop that catered to RC planes and boats, then saw "Cars" on the big screen and then had blizzards for dinner at the world's slowest Dairy Queen. It was some good time to re-connect without all the professionals involved.

Today is the first of August. Time flies when you're having fun and busy. I have to ink dates to some work travel still, closing out the FY books. My budget for D17 is 10 times the amount I handled in Portland, so I am trying hard to make it all come down to zero-zero for the middle of the month, and keep the bean-counters happy. The whole money-thing at District can get a little touchy, because the finance folks think it all belongs to them, but they are begrudgingly willing to let the programs borrow some of it. I am funding my Anchorage folks to head out to Cold Bay, Sand Point, and Nome to try to expand into some fisheries that we previously didn't have much contact with, mostly as a result of these so-called CDQ's, which are fisheries that sprang up as a result of coastal community (ie Native) development quota shares from dividing up the groundfish pie. This put a bunch of bucks into the Native corporations to put into their fisheries, and there hasn't been any historical safety culture there, so we have our work cut out for us. I am trying to tag along on the trip to Nome, if I can get the dates to work.

Wow, it occurs to me that I have worked the rigs in the Straits of Magellan (a previous life on active duty at MSO New Orleans, yet another story), so if I get to Nome then I will have just about spanned the entire Western hemisphere north to south. Isn't the Coast Guard great?!

Have a wonderful day.

KML

The House... and Banana Slug, Too

2006-07-28T15:59:00.000-07:00

I have already posted pics from inside the house, and I have been waiting for a nice, sunny day to take a few shots from the outside. Today is that sunny day... and a magnificent SE Alaska day it is. A few clouds, and looking north up the Lynn Canal on the drive home, I could see snowy-topped mountains for probably a hundred miles.

The upstairs (under the roofline) was converted by the previous owner into an apartment, which is where Mike, our landlord, lives. Mike is a nice, quiet guy, works for the US Forest Service supervising trail and cabin maintenance on Admiralty Island, and so he travels a lot. He is pretty handy, and actually brought a 40-ft container to the yard on the left side of the house to replace the shop he had previously set up in the shed/mudroom that we now use as our storage and entry room. We are the first folks he has ever rented to, so we are endeavoring to train him properly in the care and feeding of tenants.

Like I said, a beautiful day out, and I guess you just can't keep a good slug down when the sun is out. This monster banana slug was cruising up the door frame, that is, before he was unceremoniously flung into the driveway. But he/she posed for a quick picture first.

There are kilo-tons of slugs here, something about living in a temperate rainforest. Our friend (and my able deputy) Danielle enjoys watching them, and actually has several species ID books on slugs and other slimy invertebrates. Wonderful.

In the end, I was enjoying the sunshine too much to ruin my karma by salting the slippery pickle and watching it turn inside-out. Rather, I can go on with stuff, and hope that the birds do the job for me.

KML

The Cats

2006-07-27T00:23:00.000-07:00

They're only evil when photographed... yah, right. Who - us, eat Julie's plant on top of the refrigerator?? We're too cute and innocent to ever do something like that...

KML

Domestic Crap

2006-07-26T18:55:00.000-07:00

So, the verbal feedback from family and friends has been favorable, but so far, no one has bothered to post any comments. Seems this blog thing is giving you something to do at work when you're not working (but really, doesn't that describe pretty much all of us). Jessica wants pictures of the cats, and the new house. What, isn't my keen wit and droll commentary about the wilds of SE Alaska enough for ya, huh?

The house is nice... three bedrooms: the master for Ken and Julie, the "Purple Room" with a queen bed for guests, and the "Bear Room" with two twins, also for guests. One bathroom to serve all, but it does have a jetted tub. With candles and bubble-bath, it does OK.

This is the love-nest...

And the "Purple Room"...

A really big living room, which is terrific for practicing setting up a tent. Julie and I "debated" for quite some time how we were going to decorate the large wall opposite the TV... you'll have to see it for yourselves to tell who won (and you just might be surprised).

Nice big kitchen, lots of counter space for me to cook my Julie truly excellent fare, and (as you can see) decorated with sunflowers. Big surprise, there. The really important item, the barbeque grill, is out on the back porch.

Julie has filled the antique china hutch that we inherited from my Grandma Lela with the set of Desert Rose china, also from Lela. The hutch was a pain in the ass to get here, but we are very glad we did. By the way, thanks again for everybody who helped us get out of Portland...

We also have a den/office/Ken's box staging area, which continues to confound Julie at her every attempt to get all the rest of the moving boxes either into the shed/utility room/mud-room, or into the garbage. I am running out of excuses here...

So then there are the two cats, Zoe and the Baby. They are adapting well to their new home. They were not happy with the 20-days spent in temporary quarters at the vacation rental house... couldn't go out (for fear the eagles would eat them), we wouldn't let them jump on the window sills (for fear they'd push out a screen, escape, and then the eagle-thing), and the hardwood floors that gave them no traction running around. At least now, there are all carpets and no wood. They are mostly back to their pre-move selves.

Drop us a line, and know that if you can find yourself blessed enough to be in Juneau, we'll keep the light on and the door unlocked...

KML

Hiking City, USA

2006-07-25T22:53:00.000-07:00

You have to love a place where everybody tells you the first book that ya gotta get a copy of is called "90 Short Walks Around Juneau." So, Julie and I got our copy, and set off to start ticking them off. This was the first we hiked, back in June. Called the Herbert Glacier Trail, it leaves a trailhead near Mile 24, and goes thru the woods, following the creek, pretty level, about 4.5 miles to a sandy clearing at the foot of the Herbert Glacier. We were probably about another quarter to half a mile away from the actual glacial ice, but the trail stops and the shrubs get thick. Next time, we take sandals and walk thru the water to the gravel bank and then up to the ice. Or snowshoes, if we do this in the winter.

You can't see the Herbert unless you hike in, or take a helo. Well worth the walk... and some interesting 80+ year old automobiles along the trail, rusting into the landscape. And we got up close and personal with a very young porcupine that didn't seem to care about us at all. It was all Julie could do not to try to pet the thing...

The clearing at the trail's end might make a good backpack destination, except for the sand. Oh, and the tourist helicopter-inspired flashbacks to "Apocalypse Now." Darn tourists, making a noisy nuisance even way the heck out here.

When the summer sun doesn't go down until really late, you can start an adventure at 5pm, pack a dinner, and go. We went up the Spaulding Meadow Trail on a beautiful afternoon.

There are a series of alpine meadows, a sort of treeless marshy bog, as you climb the ridge. It is a fairly rough, muddy uphill slog thru forest, emerging into the sunlight of the first meadow. The view looks out to the southwest, with Auke Bay and Douglas Island right there. Here's Julie on the boardwalk.

Here's me...

This was the "clean" us, on the way up.

The climb thru more forest to the second meadow followed a very wet, very muddy drainage, lots of standing water, and places where the trail became hard to follow. I think beyond the first meadow, this is mainly a winter snowshoe, because it was just ugly. But in the end, it's only mud, and once you have that up to your shins, it can't really get worse. I think Julie was secretly digging the dirt. Anyway, the second meadow was worth the effort, but we really couldn't get more than about half the way thru the mud from there up to Spaulding Meadow at the top. We walked down knowing that we gave it a vigorous try, and we would be back in the snow when we can follow the blue diamonds on the trees instead of the least muddy path.

This Sunday we ticked off two more: the East Glacier Loop, and the Nugget Creek Trail, on the east side of the Mendenhall. It was lightly raining all day, and the Nugget is less travelled, and so has lots of underbrush to walk thru. Julie once again learned about wearing cotton jeans, as she was thoroughly soaked by the end of the 8 mile trip. Lots of old gold mining remains being absorbed back into the landscape, and a funky old mining cabin-like shelter at the end of the Nugget. The trail climbs along a gorge cut down from the icefields far above, with a roaring, milky torrent rushing by.

Water running in motion everywhere, frozen or liquid, with lots of either kinetic or potential energy. This seems to be a common thread in SE Alaska. This is the A J Falls, not related to the Nugget Creek, but a short walk off the East Glacier Loop, and so typical of the landscape. Water moving everywhere, constantly working the rock.

KML

Here we are in Alaska!!!

2006-07-20T23:38:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that we are in Alaska? What an awesome and beautiful place that we live. I would have never guessed that I would live here. I always dreamed of visiting Alaska and seeing all its splendor. But then I meet that great guy in the Coast Guard and now I live here.
We both really love it here, even though its only been 8 weeks. We have so many things planned to do and see. We will be old and gray before we see everything Alaska has to offer. We are getting settled in our new home and the cats are adjusting. We have gone on a couple of bike rides and hikes. We even had a black bear in our back yard. Oh, and lets not forget all the eagles that we see. Every single day we see eagles, they are so big and beautiful. We invite you all to come and we will show you what Alaska has to offer. This is a picture of downtown Juneau w/ Mount Juneau in the background.

Julie

Alaska Marine Highway

2006-07-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

The trip from Bellingham to Juneau on the ferry was wonderful. There is no doubt in my mind that the Inside Passage is about the most beautiful piece of water on the planet.

We departed on the COLUMBIA on Friday the 2nd of June, at about 6:00pm. It was a longish drive to Bellingham from Longview, where we stayed the previous night with Jan and Mike, but we got there early and had a last meal in the lower 48 at a cute italian place in town.

The COLUMBIA is no-frills, but the two-person stateroom was clean, well laid-out, and quite comfortable. Besides, we spent most of the time out on deck watching the scenery go by. Julie thought it a bit cold and windy, but I loved it, regardless of the rain and wind.

KML

Juneau and the Mendenhall Glacier

2006-07-19T21:28:00.000-07:00

Everyone that passes thru Juneau has to take a shot of the Mendenhall Glacier. Here's mine.

I took this one in the evening on the 10th of June. Julie and I had just arrived in town on the Ferry on the 5th. We were living in a cute little two-bedroom rental vacation house off the back-loop, and took this during an evening explore to the Visitor's Center. I love the late twi-light alpenglow...

So, Juneau is beautiful. How can you go wrong with a town that has its own glaciers and snowfield?

KML

Here I Am

2006-07-19T13:09:00.000-07:00

Welcome to this space.

My name is Ken Lawrenson. I live in Juneau, Alaska, with my awesome best friend Julie. I work for the US Coast Guard, and just transferred here in June 2006, taking a promotion as the Commercial Fishing Vessel Safety Coordinator for the 17th CG District, which means the entire State of Alaska.

I moved here from Portland, Oregon; an amazing place between the Cascade Mountains and the North Pacific Ocean. As much as I loved Oregon, I have no regrets moving north... it seems my destiny. Kinda sad that I moved from my three kids (who live with their mother in Beaverton), but I hope to share my enthusiasm and love for this country with them.

More to follow soon.

KML